Obama NCAA Bracket Won't Get Him Re-Elected

President Obama is a basketball fan. He likes to shoot around in dad jeans just like the rest of us. For the third year in a row, Obama has teamed up with ESPN for Barack-etology, or when the President fills out his picks for the NCAA tournament. He's one for two -- he correctly picked UNC to win in 2009, but had Kansas last year beating Duke. Duke, I hate to remind everyone, won the 2010 championship.

Before going through the bracket with a Sharpie and writing down his selections, Obama encouraged us to go to USAID.gov to help out with the triple crisis in Japan. Smart move, Prez. But let's get to the picks.

Following in the lines of his politics recently, Obama played it safe.

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Everyone knows that half the fun of filling out a bracket is predicting the upsets. That's what pays off, too. Predicting that each top seed in each region will win each game is so ... boring. Well, that's what Obama did.

He chose the #1 seeds in each region to advance to the Final Four: Pitt, Ohio State, Kansas, and Duke.

Way to think outside the box there. Listen, it's totally possible all four teams will make it very far; in fact, that's why they're ranked # 1, but still, it's kind of a snooze-fest to ignore any possible upsets.

Obama said that he loves UNC and Roy Williams, and has liked the play of freshman phenoms Barnes and Marshall (yay!), but has them losing to Ohio State in the Elite Eight (boo). He chose Ohio State and Kansas in the championship game, and has Kansas going all the way.

Hmm ... could he be trying to win over some voters in the Heartland? Kansas is one of the reddest states in the nation, along the lines of Texas and Mississippi. While the Jayhawks are indeed a #1 seed, they are by far from the most conservative state when compared to the other three team locations: Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. (From personal experience, I would argue that way more North Carolinians cheer for UNC over Duke, so choosing Duke may actually hurt his N.C. vibe.)

If Obama continues to play it safe with choices like these, he won't get re-elected. We voted for him in the first place to stir things up and make changes -- his bracket is so lame and predictable that it's almost offensive.

I have UNC in the final vs. Florida. Now that's how you fill out a bracket.